After getting out of the Pelican George and his team had moved quickly into the forest. After ten minutes of walking through it, they came to the edge of the valley. George shielded his eyes as he looked down into the valley. Trees sloped down to the bottom and back up the other side. "Chief, look down there," said Sarah through the COM channel. Sarah was standing to his left, pointing at a spot clear of trees at the bottom of the valley. George, using his helmet HUD, zoomed into the area she was pointing at. A Longsword fighter was sticking up halfway out of the ground at a slant, like it had crashed, and a SPARTAN was hiding behind it. A group of Covenant were slowly coming down the valley towards the fighter. Once they were almost there the SPARTAN burst out from behind the Longsword and, in a matter of seconds, killed them all. "Is that one of our men, sir? I don't remember any of us SPARTAN's being given a Longsword fighter," asked Sarah. "No, he's not one of ours," answered George, "And he's not a SPARTAN III. His MJOLNIR is the type given to the II series." "I thought none of the SPARTAN II's were left," said Mark. "The ones that were still alive when the Covenant attacked Reach were either killed on Reach or went missing with the Pillar of Autumn." "Yes, but the fate of the Pillar of Autumn is still unknown, and it had Longswords aboard. I guess he's from the Autumn. Let's go down there and give him a hand," George said. "Yes sir!" replied his three teammates. Faster than the SPARTAN II's, they would have no trouble getting to the bottom of the valley in a short time. They quickly set off at a jog down the hillside, weaving their way in and out of trees. Suddenly, after only two minutes, a big blue glowing plasma ball rocketed above the trees ahead then came down a fair distance away. A few seconds later there was a loud explosion and the ground shook. Two more plasma bombs came out of the trees and falling back down. More explosions. "Wraith tanks!" cried Sarah. "Mark, go back to the Pelican and get the crates of M 19 Rocket Launchers and ammunition. Come back quick as you can," ordered George. He didn't think they would need the launchers because this area was supposed to be lightly defended, but twenty-two minutes into the mission and they had already run into artillery. That did not seem like very good evidence of "lightly defended". He motioned for them to continue onward while Mark ran back for the Rocket Launchers.

"Okay Captain, the blast doors are shut again. Be careful, there are Hunters in there," said Richard. "Thanks," replied the Captain. Captain Geredar pulled the pins on two grenades and threw them in through the opening in the blast door. He quickly pulled two more pins and threw the grenades in. Four explosion rocked the floor of the Hymir, then he stood up, sliding his pistol through the opening and pulling the trigger. Soon there was a 'click' as the clip became empty. The Captain rammed another clip into the gun and was about to continue firing when a green glow came through the opening. "Oh shit," said the Captain, taking a few steps back. There were two explosions and a large hole was boiled into the blast door. He had managed to kill the remaining Elites, but he had hardly touched the two Hunters. One stepped through the hole and ran towards Captain Geredar.

The lifepod John Carmand was on came to a halt as it docked with the human frigate. He loaded a clip into the assault rifle he was carrying and climbed out of the lifepod, along with the rest of the Flood combat forms. The largest of them took the lead and motioned for them to follow him. They past many Covenant boarding craft and turned left. On the far side of the room was a locked blast door, and there was the sound of explosions coming from the other side. The leader pointed at the key pad and one of the Flood rushed forward. He walked over to the wall next to the door and took off a panel of the wall. He began to mess with some wires, trying to unlock the door. The rest of them waited near the door. Suddenly the the first part of the blast door began to open. They saw on the other side Hunter climbing through a hole in the other blast door. Once the second part was completely open they ran over to the hole in the next blast door and saw two Hunters rushing towards a human, who was desperately firing his pistol at them. John looked around him and saw almost a hundred Covenant bodies, and a massive coat of blood. But there were no human bodies or blood...

"Get back you mother f-!" the Captain was cut off by a Hunter's shield batting him into the wall. He slammed against the solid metal. One of the Hunters, who had taken off his fuel rod cannon, rammed his armored fist through Captain Geredar's stomach. There was the sound of metal hitting metal as the Hunter's fist ripped all the way through the Captain's body. Then the giant alien retracted his fist and the Captain slid down to the floor, leaving a streak of blood on the wall, pieces of his intestines clung to the wall. He managed to spit a mouthful of blood at the Hunter before the big metal fist smashed his head flat.

John suddenly tried to leap forward and get revenge on the Hunters for killing the human, who had obviously killed all these Covenant. The leader held him back, holding on to his mutilated shoulders. It growled at him, and he understood. Wait. Watch. The leader picked up a grenade from the other side of the door. The Hunters had carelessly kicked the human's pile of grenades, and now they were all over the floor were the Hunters were standing. The lead Flood pulled the pin with a maimed hand and threw it at the Hunters. The massive aliens began to laugh, but they were interrupted by explosion after explosion as the grenade set off the others. When the smoke cleared the Hunters were in several pieces.

George stopped just before the clearing and looked beyond the trees. The Longsword was no longer recognizable, and the SPARTAN was lying on the ground, trying to pull himself to cover. A few hundred feet away were three Covenant Wraith tanks. George burst out into the clearing, firing his rifle, then retreated behind the trees. Just then Mark came running back, a large crate over each shoulder. He set them down and George hastily opened them. In one were ten M 19 SSM Rocket Launchers and in the other were forty rockets. George picked up a launcher and loaded a clip of two rockets. He hoisted it over his shoulder and ran out into the clearing again. Quickly taking aim, he fired at the closest tank. The rocket detonated on the tank's nose and the front of the tank bounced upward, then came back down. George ran back into the forest, and by then Mark, Luke, and Sarah had fully loaded rocket launchers. "Each of you pick a tank and destroy it," ordered George. "Just be careful not to get blown up." "Yes sir!" and they ran off to engage the tanks. George ran over to the SPARTAN and picked him up, carrying him into the safety of the trees. He set the SPARTAN down and took off the II series helmet, which was battered and scarred. After coughing up some blood, the SPARTAN II asked, "Who are you?" "I've got a better question," answered George. "Who are you and why are you out here?" "I'm on a special UNSC vacation, can't you tell?" replied the SPARTAN, then he coughed up more blood and fell unconscious. There were three explosions and the other SPARTAN III's came running back. "Is he dead?" asked Mark. "No," answered George, "Hand me a first aid kit." Mark gave him one and George took off the rest of the SPARTAN II's armor and began tending to his many wounds.

A Grunt came running into Field Master Huri 'Ranalamee's tent. The little alien was obviously very frightened. Blood was seeping out of his environment suit in several places and his methane was slowly leaking out. "Excellency!" cried the Grunt. "Three more humans in special armor! They-they came out of the forest! They destroyed the tanks Excellency! AHHH!" then he ran off half suffocating back to his barracks to get a new suit. 'Ranalamee jumped up in rage. "What?!" He bellowed. He ran outside. Sure enough, he saw the three smoldering remains of his new support units. He turned around to face the two Elite guards standing at the door of the tent. "Did you rats just stand there while some nasty filth destroyed my tanks?!" he yelled at them. "It's too hot to run down there, Excellency. My armor would get all messed up, and I just polished it too," said one of the guards. 'Ranalamee brought his plasma rifle up and slammed hard into the side of the guard's face. He felt bones break, but he was too angry about his Wraiths to care the slightest. The guard rolled around on the ground bellowing curses on the human scum and screaming in pain. "You!" yelled 'Ranalamee, pointing at the other guard, who flinched, shielding his face. "Get down there and find those humans! Or is it too hot for you?" said the enraged Field Master. "No Excellency!" answered the frightened guard, already halfway down the hill. The Field Master ran over to the flat section of land that served as a landing spot for their five Banshees. He ran up to the air control building's door and slammed his fist on it. The door slid open and standing there was the head pilot. "Get all of your banshees in the air and searching for the humans!" ordered 'Ranalamee. The pilot was about to ask "What humans?", but he heard the screams of the guard and thought it better not to, seeing as how the Field Master was furious. The pilot ran off the the barracks where the other Banshee pilots were. He was going to tell them to get into the air and look for humans, and to be fast about it. The Field Master was not in a patient mood.

Ganu 'Punilamee ran down the hill, scared more of the Field Master than any human he thought he'd find. He still heard his fellow guard's screams drifting down the valley. But then, as he reached the bottom and approached the human fighter, he heard other voices. Human voices. The voice of his pray. He slowly poked his head around the fighter and saw three humans in special armor standing up, another crouching over a human on the ground. He aimed his plasma rifle at the back of the crouching human and...

Suddenly George was knocked to the ground. Plasma had hit him it the back, but his shield absorbed most of the damage. More plasma shots flew through the air. Mark and Luke took out their assault rifles and snuck up on where the shots were coming from. Mark climbed up and over the fighter, quietly setting his feet on the ground behind the Elite. Slowly he reached into a bag on the Elite's belt and pulled out the Elite's own plasma grenade. Mark tapped the Elite on the shoulder and the alien turned around very fast. "Hey, this yours?" said Mark, and he armed the grenade and stuck it to the Elite's face. Mark ran away as fast as he could. The Elite screamed, then there was a blue explosion and his head was vaporized. The rest of his body flopped to the ground a few yards away. Mark and Luke walked back over to George and Sarah. "You alright?" Mark asked George. "Yeah," he answered and continued working on the wounded SPARTAN II. Then they heard the sound of Banshee engines.